SEO Strategy and Tactics for Early Stage Businesses and Startups

SEO STRATEGY &
TACTICS
FOR EARLY STAGE
BUSINESSES
by Edmund Pelgen
OnlineKickstart.com
1 SEO STRATEGY & TACTICS FOR EARLY STAGE BUSINESSES

SEO is the process of
affecting a websites'
visibility in search
engine's organic search
results.

Traffic Channels in
Analytics
• Organic - Search engine optimisation
• Paid - Google Ads, Facebook Ads etc
• Social - Facebook, Twitter etc
• Direct - people typing in your address
and anything else
• Referral - Traffic from other websites

SEO in 6 Steps
SEO is not Rocket Science
1. Understand the keywords your market uses to research problems and find solutions
2. Fix broken stuff, optimise pages for keywords, create helpful, unique, quality
content/pages
3. Build or attract quality links from relevant sites
4. Track rankings & traffic, do more of what’s working
5. Have a way of converting traffic into customers
6. Amplify your efforts with paid social campaigns

Why is SEO Important for Startups
• It can be a key traffic strategy for some startups
• Elements of SEO feed into how your brand presents online (How
pages appear in search and social, mobile performance etc)
• It’s where partners, investors and customers go to find out more
• There is overlap between traditional PR/SEO/Content Marketing
• The key skills have multiple applications in your startup
• SEO is a key element in the Internet Marketing Stack

Internet Marketing
Stack
• Earned Media (SEO) is attention and
exposure you earn by being valuable
• The bottom layers are CRITICAL for all
digital marketing activities including SEO
• https://www.portent.com/mkstack/
• https://www.portent.com/blog/internet-
marketing/stack-overview.htm

STRATEGIC
CONSIDERATIONS
Consider the following questions
when thinking about SEO

Is Organic search a key
part of Discovery in
your industry??
• Are their big issues or problems people
search for regularly (Best Online
Accounting Software)
• Are there known providers by location
people search for (Brisbane Bookkeeping)
• Or is it something completely new around
which no search volume yet exists (Uber?)
If you can target into existing search
behaviour then SEO is an option for you.

Do you need traffic/
leads/sales quickly?
• Do you need instant runs on the board?
• Do you need to test your marketing/
conversion funnel/on boarding
processes?
If Yes? Then get the SEO fundamentals
right (infrastructure, site optimisations,
mobile responsiveness) then focus on paid
traffic or JV’s to drive traffic.

Is SEO a key part of my competitor’s
business strategy?
• If SEO is how discovery works in your industry then you have no
choice but to play
• It’s critical to understand HOW competitors are doing SEO, so you
can choose your strategy.
• For example, is everyone competing for bottom of funnel keywords
but not top of funnel keywords? Is this an opportunity for you?

Do I have the resources to compete
effectively?
• SEO in competitive spaces is brutal if you are chasing big head
terms.
• You will need funds for content development & promotion,
sponsored link placements and outreach.
• A minimum of $1,500 per month for the agencies time + content
and sponsored placement fees

Do you and your
investors have the
patience for SEO?
• SEO takes time to deliver results
especially in competitive markets.
• Can your funding cycle cover the time
required for results?
• Have you managed investors
expectations?

Are you targeting a Global or Local
Audience?
• This impacts the choice of top level domains and in country domains
• Multi country targeting adds complexity such as domain names,
content localisation and translation in country specific content and
link building
• Do you have robust reliable infrastructure & partners

Is Your Brand Unique
enough?
• “Brand Search” tells Google you are a
real business
• A name that is similar to generic phrases
will get lost in brand search
• Can you own more of page 1 by securing
your social profiles
• This is critical for customers who hear
about you and potential investors
looking for you

Step by Step Guide
Here is a list of “must do’s for Early
Stage Businesses to do well in
Organic Search

Infrastructure

Leverage WordPress for Front End
WordPress streamlines the effort required to get online fast
• Blog at domain.com/blog - better for seo (not on a third party platform)
• Install Yoast SEO Plugin to optimise your pages https://yoast.com/wordpress/
plugins/seo
• Use fast, robust hosting with CDN if market is global
• Use installed WordPress, NOT hosted WordPress https://wordpress.org/download/
• Use https for your domain
See the team at https://web3.com.au/

Choose Responsive
Design v Mobile Site
Mobile is where your audience is
• Responsive site presents a single site to
Google
• Google will be ranking all content on the
mobile version of your site.
• Test, Test, Test on mobile
• Mobile Friendly https://www.google.com.au/
webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/
• Mobile Speed https://
testmysite.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-au

Focus on Mobile Site
Load Speed
Important to usability & SEO
• Site load speed is a ranking factor
• Critical to keeping people around
• Use Gtmetrix.com to test site speed
• Get your developer to fix speed issues

Make Sure your site is
Secure from Hackers
• Hacked sites get flagged in organic
search
• Flagged sites will see massive drops in
click throughs and rankings
• Minimise plugins & keep WordPress
updated
• Sign up to Google Search Console to be
notified of a hack

Set up & Install Google
Analytics
Google analytics allows you to make
informed decisions about your marketing
activities
• Set up Google Analytics
• Set up at least one goal
• Install the code on your website
www.google.com.au/analytics/
Beginners Guide http://bit.ly/1vn9Ye4

Sign up to Google
Search Console
Search Console allows you to monitor the
health and performance of your site in
Google
• See how many pages are in Google
• See if there are any issues with the site
• See keywords that generate
impressions and clicks
www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

Add Google Remarking
Code & Facebook Pixel
This will allow you to use paid advertising to
reach out to people who found your content via
organic search and then pull them through the
marketing funnel.
• Add code to your site
• Create website custom audiences in
Facebook
https://www.jonloomer.com/2016/11/18/
facebook-remarketing/
http://www.ppchero.com/ultimate-guide-to-
adwords-remarketing/

Website
Optimisation

Research Your
Keywords
• Use Semrush.com to high high volume,
high relevance keywords
• Understand the keyword hierarchy
• Search for problem/solution keywords
• Find keywords for all stages of the buyer
journey

Research Competitor
Keywords
• Put your top 10 competitors URL’s into
Semrush.com
• Take note of keywords driving most of
their traffic - Ignore non traffic keywords
• Add the keywords to your consideration
set

Understand the
Keyword Hierarchy
• Keyword volumes decrease the deeper
you go
• Specificity increases the deeper you go
• Likelihood of conversion increases the
deeper you go
• Optimise your site correctly to target the
right keywords

Optimise Your Home Page for Brand +
Headline Keyword
Example: Xero.com.au

Optimise Your blog posts for TOFU
Keywords
Example: 2017 income tax brackets

Website
Content31 SEO STRATEGY & TACTICS FOR EARLY STAGE BUSINESSES

Understanding the Customer is
Critical
• All customers go on a journey before buying your product
• Keywords tell you “where” they are in the funnel
• Understanding the needs, wants, desires, pain of the customer
helps with keyword and content selection
• Buyer personas

Have Content at Each
Stage
• Awareness - Educational, Viral, Guides,
Videos, Problem & Solutions
• Consideration - Solutions to use case -
Case studies, demos using your product,
How to's,
• Conversion - Testimonials, Reviews,
Trials, Webinars, Challenges
• Retention - Help documentation, on
boarding content, emails
A great example https://www.drip.co/blog/

Make Each Page a High
Performing Page
• Make your copy focus on the target
customer
• Make sure on page copy is
comprehensive and unique and is not
replicated elsewhere
• Make sure you have proper calls to
action
• Make sure each key page has a custom
page title and meta description

Answer Every Single
Question as a Blog
Post
• Compile a list of all questions ever asked
about your product or service
• Write a blog post answering that question
and publish it on the site
• One page per answer
• Can use video or audio but make sure you
transcribe the copy into the page use
trint.com
• Check the search volume with Semrush.com

Use Answerthepublic.com to find
more questions

Find Competitors High
Performing Content
with SEMRush.com
• Put competitor Url in SEMrush.com
• Click on Organic Research > Pages
• Look for blog posts or resources
generating a high % of traffic and large #
of keywords - make sure they are non
brand terms
• Write a bigger, better version and then
promote it

Newsjack Current
Affairs by Commenting
on Industry News
• Follow the news sites or topical blogs that publish
stories relevant to your potential customers
• Write a short insightful commentary with the key
points and your perspective
• Publish the post to your site providing source
attribution to the original source
• Share it on social media and boost it on Facebook
• Notice what stories your audience likes and engages
with and publish more of those
https://www.onlinekickstart.com/curated-news-case-
study/

Document Your Story/
Journey on your Blog
• People love to follow along the Hero’s Journey
• Focus your story on what you do, what you
offer how you are different
• Link out to and ping on social media other
founders, startup media,Journalists (if it
makes sense)
• Publish on your blog and on sites like Medium
http://fortune.com/2015/02/09/founders-story/
https://generalassemb.ly/blog/10-startup-
founder-blogs-every-entrepreneur-should-
read/

Link Building
PR & Outreach

Secure your Brand
with Knowem.com
• Complete full business profiles on main
platforms
• Make sure you have a link back to your
site
• Where relevant & possible include
keyword with your brand “Xero
Accounting Software”

Submit yourself to all
Startup Directories
• Make sure you include your website
address
• Ensure consistency of name, address &
phone number
• Look for general startup directories “top
startup directories”
• Look for Local startup directories
“Brisbane startup directories”
• Look for Niche startup directories “Saas
startup directories”

Submit yourself to
Quality Local
Directories
• Make sure you include your website
address
• Ensure consistency of name, address &
phone number
• Use other SEO’s lists of directories “top
Australian business directories”
• Look for location specific directories “top
Brisbane directories”

Find Industry
Publications you can
Guest Post for
• Use advanced search operators
• Keyword + intitle:“write for us”
• Keyword + intitle:“contribute to”
• Keyword + intitle:“submit” + inurl:blog
• Analyse content, write a blog post and
submit
• TIP: Ask for their advertising rates and
whether they allow sponsored posts. This
will allow you to pay for placement

Become an Industry
Source
• Sign up as a source at HARO https://
www.helpareporter.com/sources/
• Sign up as a source at Source bottle
http://www.sourcebottle.com/
subscribe.asp
• Check the daily media requests and
where relevant provide your content/
insight

Scale Outreach with
Mailshake
• Pitch bloggers for trials
• Pitch bloggers for reviews
• Pitch bloggers for joint promotions
• Pitch bloggers for sponsored posts
• Use Mailshake to do this at scale

Steal Competitor Links
• Use ahrefs.com or majestic.com and
analyse your top 5 competitors backlink
profiles
• Find out who is linking to your
competitors and why
• Go get those links or replicate the
content they are linking to

Working with
Agencies

Insights when Working with Agencies
• Like everything - there are good and bad agencies
• Most of them outsource link building to third parties using Private Blog Networks
(PBN’s)
• You will be paying at least $125 per hour for labour they will outsource at $30 per hour
• Use specialist agencies where possible - Most generalists aren’t necessarily good at
everything
• Stay away from general marketing agencies for whom SEO is just an add on
• Foundational & technical SEO setup is a one off activity and can be done in less than a
quarter - Avoid open ended engagements unless you know exactly what you are paying
for

Contact Me
1. Edmund Pelgen
2. OnlineKickstart.com
3. edmund@onlinekickstart or 0409 517 533

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